That’s no school teacher, that’s my dad the judge

Sarah Palin has endorsed Carly Fiorina in California’s Republican primary. I have not been able to formulate a preference in that race, so I can’t quarrel with Palin’s decision to endorse Fiorina.
Her statement announcing the endorsement puzzles me, however. For one thing, she states: “I support Carly as she fights through a tough primary against a liberal member of the GOP who seems to bear almost no difference to Boxer, one of the most leftwing members of the Senate.”
Tom Campbell, Fiorina’s main opponent, is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I too have reservations about him. But to claim that Campbell bears almost no difference to Senator Boxer is ludicrous.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the National Taxpayers Union, an anti-tax group, gave Campbell “A” and “B” grades during his time in Congress. The American Conservative Union, which takes into account social issues, gave Campbell, who has a substantial libertarian streak, a lifetime rating of 54 during his final year in office on a scale where 80 is considered conservative. That’s nowhere close to Barbara Boxer territory. ( Kathleen Parker, call your office)
Palin also states that Fiorina “grew up in a modest home with a school teacher dad.” But the several biographies I’ve seen of the candidate state that she is the daughter of “Joseph Sneed (a law professor and judge) and Madeline (a painter; maiden name unknown).”
Joseph Sneed was an iconic law professor at Stanford. I missed him by a year, but often stared at his portrait in the main lecture hall (he seemed to stare back). His former students would be amused to hear him referred to as a school teacher and, from what I’ve heard, to see the word “modest” in a the same sentence as his name.
Sneed later became a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He and his wife apparently were married for 54 years, until she died, so there must not have been any other “father” to whom Palin was referring.
Am I missing something, or is Palin’s short statement distorted on two counts?

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses